John Updike's extensive body of work is the focus of this volume. New essays include a discussion of the social and historical context of Updike's work and a consideration of Updike's recurrent Jewish-American character.

On John Updike / Bernard F. Rodgers, Jr -- Biography of John Updike / Debra Shostak -- The Paris review perspective / Robert Roper for The Paris review -- Gentile on my mind : Updike, Bech, and the limits of ethnic representation / Derek Parker Royal -- Shaping graces : John Updike, middleness, and the American experience / James Plath -- Updike and Howells / James A. Schiff -- The critical reception of John Updike / Jack De Bellis -- The Pennsylvania thing : Pigeon feathers/The centaur / William H. Pritchard -- Updike's American comedies / Joyce Carol Oates -- Introducing the Maples / Alice and Kenneth Hamilton -- The Rabbit tetralogy : from solitude to society to solitude again / Matthew Wilson -- The trouble with Harry : Rabbit at rest / Hermione Lee -- Granting the individual soul its due / Peter J. Bailey -- Inside America / Marshall Boswell -- Updike's Scarlet letter trilogy : recasting an American myth / James A. Schiff -- Going south : Bech at bay and before / Bernard F. Rodgers, Jr -- God goes to the movies : In the beauty of the lilies / A.O. Scott -- In desire's grip : gender, politics, and intertextual games in Updike's Gertrude and Claudius / Laura Elena Savu -- The modesty of John Updike / David Heddendorf -- A fan's notes : on Updike's long game / Adam Gopnik -- Resources -- Chronology of John Updike's life -- Works by John Updike -- Bibliography.